1. Introduction
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ promotes complex reforms and change processes, often working under difficult conditions. It corporate objective is to improve people’s living conditions on a sustainable basis. GIZ International Services (GIZ InS) is the company’s business department offering services to international clients such as the European Commission. For more information, please consult www.giz.de.
The GIZ InS office in Brussels has currently approx. 25 staff, the majority of whom is working in the implementation of EC funded projects.
We are currently looking for a Project Assistant, based in Brussels, to support the Election Observation and Democracy Support (EODS) project team.
EODS is the capacity building project for EU Election Observation. It is funded by the European Commission. The current EODS project has five main areas of support:
- Strengthening the EU Election Observation Mission methodology
- Building the capacity of EU election missions to assess the impact of social media on elections
- Coordinating the communication strategy for EU election missions
- Training election observation specialists in EU methodology and key election principles
- Developing tools to support the operational aspects of EU election observation
GIZ has been implementing this project since February 2021, in a consortium with Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and Memo98. The present Terms of Reference describe the main responsibilities of the Project Assistant in the above-mentioned project and within GIZ.
2. Responsibilities
2.1 Day to day liaison with the Contracting Authority
Supporting the Project Team in all aspects of day to day project implementation with the Contracting Authority, in coordination with EODS Team Leader and GIZ Project Manager, including:
- Preparation of and participation in briefings and meetings, including taking minutes and drafting of reports
- Liaising with the EC for administrative issues (i.e. requests for approvals)
- Making sure the timesheets of both key and non-key experts are timely submitted
2.2 Support to project implementation and monitoring
This includes:
- Supporting the Project Team with administrative, financial and logistical issues as applicable;
- Support to training organization: flight tickets, per diems calculation, accommodation, procurement, contracts; provide logistics assistance in the preparation of training courses, seminars and conferences; prepare all training coffee breaks and farewell dinner as well as assist full time during the whole period of the training;
- Support the Project Team in the implementation of the project activities, including the organization of conferences, meetings and workshops; e-learning courses and webinars, as well as activities related to communication and visibility;
- Organize translation of documents and/or interpretation, when required;
- Harmonize presentations, papers, reports, briefings etc.;
- Set-up, maintain and modify project templates for project procedures;
- Prepare briefings for project management structure and experts, take minutes and draft reports;
- Liaise with GIZ Project Manager;
- Ensure that all administrative files are complete and compliant; support preparation of expenditure verifications and internal controls; support to the preparation of invoices to EC;
- Support the Project Team on any ad-hoc requests related to the EODS activities.
2.3 Office management
- EODS Project office management (e.g. monitoring of the office’s needs & procurement, liaise with suppliers, etc.);
- Administrative and Facility Management;
- Welcoming Guests / Answering Phone
2.4 Liaison with Partners and management of short term expertise
- Liaise with partners for all activities, in particular with regard to the selection and deployment of short term experts (non-key experts/NKE);
- Manage the short term expert pool;
- Support the formulation of ToR for NKEs, including definition of the expertise needed, the expected timelines for assignment, duration, location, outputs required, reporting lines and logistical support if required;
- Support the identification and pre-selection of experts in line with the specific requests from the EC procedures;
- Logistical and administrative support for the deployment of the NKEs, if applicable. Contact point for troubleshooting and interlocutor for backstopping requests from the experts;
- Review/editing of reports or other inputs;
- Close monitoring of the use of NKE fee days,
2.5 Support to project acquisition of the GIZ InS Brussels Office
The Project Assistant will also support the project acquisition of the GIZ InS Brussels Office when possible. Tasks may include:
- Carrying out research tasks, e.g. for identification of suitable consortium partners, experts or approaches for implementation, etc.;
- Drafting and proofreading parts of technical offers including CVs, references etc. and adjusting them to the specific tender requirements and the GIZ InS standards;
- Editing large texts including tables, graphics etc. in Word, Excel and Power Point;
- Managing the timely completion of administrative proposals by identifying and compiling the requested documents and information from GIZ and all consortium partners in compliance with the tender documents;
- Managing the timely completion of letters of interest including efficient targeted liaison with consortium partners and GIZ HQ;
- Keeping up to date and improving general key documents and key information for tenders such as project references, performance confirmations from clients etc.;
- General administrative support including for the production of proposals.
The above list of tasks is not exhaustive and might be complemented according to the actual needs of the projects and GIZ InS Brussels.
All tasks shall be carried out under supervision of and in close collaboration with GIZ Project Manager.
For all tasks, GIZ Orientations & Rules, InS processes and individual contractual obligations of project contracts where applicable are to be considered.
All business-related details must be treated strictly confidentially.
PROFILE
Minimum requirements are:
- University degree in the field of international relations, law, public administration, project management, or any other field related to the project
- Two years working experience (including traineeships)
- Outstanding organizational skills and capability to work under pressure of tight deadlines
- Good understanding of contractual matters
- Service-oriented attitude
- Excellent communication skills, keen on working in a team
- Excellent knowledge (speaking and writing) of English and French, knowledge of another language (Spanish or Portuguese) is an asset
- Full IT proficiency (inc. MS Office package)
- Previous experience with Election Observation Mission is desirable, but not mandatory
- Experience with EU financed projects will be an asset
- Work permit for Belgium, as the EODS office is located in Brussels
The position will be a full-time position under Belgian law (CDI).
Applicants are asked to submit their updated CV together with a one-page cover letter (both CV and letter in English) to the following email address: didier.vanhecke@giz.de, mentioning the position you apply for in the reference. Please, also indicate your earliest possible starting date.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview. Thank you for your understanding.
this job offer is not open for applications
